Wednesday, February 3, 2010

I just completed an excellent book for my book club. The book is called Still Alice by Lisa Genova and follows the journey of a woman who is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. This book is incredibly moving and I would highly recommend reading it.

How does this relate to the Buddy Bands blog? Easy. Remember the Full House episode when DJ volunteers at the retirement home? The episode is aptly named "The Volunteer". DJ befriends a kind old man named Eddie, who has Alzheimer's disease. She invites him back to Chez Tanner where he gets confused and calls DJ "Gloria", which is his daughter's name. (Side note: I once had a roommate named Gloria and had to bite my tongue every time I saw her because all I wanted to do was bust out singing songs with her name in them. Especially this one:

I don't think she was the type of person who would appreciate that, so I refrained.) Anyway, Eddie's actions confuse and sadden DJ leading to a "music moment" when Danny explains Eddie's situation to DJ and encourages her to continue to be his friend. Another life lesson courtesy of Danny Tanner. When I have kids, my parenting method will be to sit the rug rats in front of the TV and continually play Full House seasons one through eight. Good idea??

You can watch a clip of the conclusion of this episode below. Listen for Eddie's Harry Carey-like voice...Hey! If you were a hot dog, would you eat yourself?

Stephanie also boasts a hot to trot outfit in this episode:

Please note that in no way am I making light of this serious disease. Especially after reading Still Alice, I can't image what it would be like to have a loved one go through this, let alone go through it yourself. To learn more about Alzheimer's Disease, visit the website for the Alzheimer's Association.